Housekeeping
by Star the Foxhound
Summary: When Italy interrupts Germany while he is trying to work, the result ends up with Italy's house getting cleaned. Based on an RPG conversation with one of my friends.


"Germany, I'm bored."

The blond man looked up from the papers in front of him and eyes his friend and ally with his blue eyes. Of course as soon as he sat down to work, Italy would come looking for him for entertainment. "I am very busy right now," he said, turning his attention back to what he'd been working on.

His answer didn't please Italy who watched him for a moment before crossing the room and leaning over Germany's shoulder. "What are you working on?"

"Work. Nothing that concerns you." Germany pulled the papers from the others view. While Italy was his ally, he wasn't going to allow him to see details of how his country was doing. "Don't you have anything you could be doing?"

Italy shook his head. "My brother's out for the day and he didn't tell me where he was going. And Japan's not home either, I tried calling him. Germany, I'm bored!"

"You already said that." Germany didn't look up from the papers, continuing to work while making sure Italy didn't try to read them. He didn't have to worry. The Italian had lost interest in doing so.

"Germany!" Italy poked his friend on the arm.

Still the other didn't look up. "I need to finish this. When I am done we can do something together."

Italy pouted. "But I'm bored!"

As if he hadn't gathered that fact. "Why don't you clean your house?" Germany suggested. He could never get used to the way his ally kept his house, not when Germany went through so much effort to keep his place clean. It was important that everything was kept in its proper place, not scattered throughout the house.

"My house doesn't need to be cleaned," Italy stated.

"Yes, it does," Germany said, looking up at him. It was nearly impossible to work with the other hanging over him.

"But I know where everything is! Last time you cleaned my house I couldn't find anything for a week!"

Germany remembered that well. He had finally gotten fed up with the mess and took care of it himself since Italy wouldn't do it. He was tempted to do it again.

"If you cleaned it yourself, you wouldn't have that problem."

"I can still see the floor!"

From the tone in Italy's voice, Germany could tell that his ally was trying every excuse he could think of to avoid having the house cleaned. He could also tell that he wasn't going to get any work done.

"You can barely see the floor."

Putting the papers away, Germany stood up. "And since you aren't going to do it, I will.

"No!" Italy latched himself onto Germany's arm. "Then I won't be able to find anything again!"

He pulled himself from Italy's grasp and started to walk from the room to his office, only to be tackled to the ground when his back was turned. "Germany! No! Don't clean it!"

"Italy!" He protested the others sudden leap on top of him, pressed to his stomach on the floor while the Italian sat on his back. "Get off! Now!"

"Please don't clean my house! I'll do anything!"

"Get off!" Germany rolled over, pushing Italy off of him and standing back up. "Either you are going to clean the place, or I am going to do it for you. Then I have work to do."

Without looking back, he started off at a brisk walk to Italy's house. He didn't have to look back to know that Italy was following. When did the other nation not follow him? And it didn't take them very long to arrive at Italy's house. Like usual, there were objects scattered across the room. If he was going to make the place look presentable, then Germany would have a lot of work to do.

Italy had been right that the floor could be seen, pieces of it here and there among the scattered clothes, the books that were piled on the floor and tables, the art supplies and half finished art projects here and there.

He got straight to work, not even looking at Italy who stood there staring at him as he picked up some of the clothes and started to lump them into one pile.

"You're mixing up the clean clothes with the dirty ones!"

Germany glanced at him for a moment. "How do you even know the difference? They will all get washed today."

"It doesn't make any sense to wash the clean clothes..." Italy said, staring at him in confusion.

"I can't tell which are which," Germany said, continuing to move the clothes into one pile.

It took him a little while to move all the clothes into one place, then find Italy's washing machine and run them all through the wash. But the place started to look much better already, even if there was still a lot of work to be done.

The next place that Germany turned to was the bookshelf and he started to arrange the books by author.

"You're messing up the order!" Italy protested.

"Nein." Germany shook his head. "I'm putting them in order."

Italy was starting to get annoyed with the cleaning that he didn't want to take place and he started to pull the books from the bookcase, dumping them back onto the floor.

"Stop it!" Germany said, also annoyed then, although for a different reason. He didn't like the effort he'd put in, to be messed up so quickly. "Go make some pasta."

"Pasta!" It only took that one word to change the thoughts in the nations head. All annoyance quickly vanished as a grin spread across his face. "That's a great idea! I'll make us some pasta! What kind of pasta do you want, Germany?!"

"Whatever you want," Germany replied, turning his attention back to putting the books back in order while Italy just grinned some more and skipped off to the kitchen to make his favorite dish.

A little while later, when Germany had gotten all the books into order and had started to place all the paintings around the room, whether they were finished, or not finished, Italy came back with two bowls of pasta. "I've got our pasta!" He said, before noticing what Germany was doing. "Those aren't finished yet, Germany!"

"They will be right here for you when you want to finish them."

"No!" Italy put down the pasta and pulled the paintings from the drawer. "They can't breathe if they're in there!"

Germany stared at him. "They're paintings. They don't need to breathe. Put them back, Italy."

Italy shook his head and clutched the paintings to his chest. "No!"

"Italy. You're wasting time and I've got a lot to do," Germany said, "Put them back, now."

"No!"

The conversation was going nowhere and Germany was feeling frustrated as he looked at his ally. He really did have a lot of work to do and didn't have time to be agrueing about whether or not a few paintings were going in a drawer or not. The room was at least mostly in order and so he stood up.

"I have work to do Italy, do not destroy the progress I made on your house."

Italy looked at him in surprise. "Aren't you going to stay and eat the pasta?"

Germany shook his head. "I can't Italy, I need to get back to work. You enjoy the pasta and I'll see you later."

"Okay!" Italy picked up one of the bowls and started to eat it. "Bye, Germany!"

"Goodbye Italy."

He turned and left the house, walking back to his place and his office. Even if Italy made a mess out of the house again, it might at least keep his ally from interrupting him while he was trying to work.


End file.
